This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our Cookies Policy.

Depop is a mobile shopping app whose mission is to make buying and selling “easy and fun”.

Through an Instagram-style feed, you can browse through a huge selection of second-hand pieces. Other users use the app to sell crafts, art, records … The list goes on.

The Depop 'Explore' page
Source: @fionnualajay

But listen. we’re all aware of the craic you can have buying stuff, (hence why we’re here) but selling stuff seem a little tricky, given the amount of fraudsters around the place.

It’s actually fairly easy – you upload a photo of whatever you’re selling, write a brief description of the item and the reason for the sale, set your price and voila! It’s out for the masses to peek at.

The description page for listings

How an item appears when you list it on the app
Source: @fionnualajay

In the event that someone buys your item (woohoo!) you can ship it to them and set your own shipping costs, or meet up in person to give them their item.

Ok, but what about all the financial stuff?

It costs absolutely zilch to list something for sale on Depop. They do, however, get a 10% fee on the total transaction amount (including shipping costs).

In terms of buying, you can purchase items using your credit or debit card, or with your Paypal account through the app.

Sometimes, buyers or sellers will ask you to pay via PayPal outside of the app. This way, there are no fees payable to Depop.

Before doing this, it’s important to check a seller/buyer’s user rating and reviews. If they’re consistently getting bad reviews, think twice before sending money for anything outside of the app.

A user's reviews show up on their profile

It means you have no comeback if your item doesn’t arrive or, on the flip side, if your buyer doesn’t pay up by the time you post the item.

How do I get followers and people to buy my stuff?

Ok, so this bit isn’t as easy to answer. If you have a good social media presence, this obviously helps – bloggers like Suzanne Jackson and Sarah Hanrahan tend to have their uploads sell out immediately due to their popularity on the app.

A desktop view of Suzanne Jackson's Depop profile

But what if you’re just a smalltown girl living with a lonely world of clothes?

Be clear in your descriptions of items: Don’t be afraid to throw a few tags on them either

Don’t bother uploading stuff that isn’t extremely dated/unwearable: You have to know where to draw the line when it comes to separating what someone might genuinely wear again. I’m sure your Debs dress is in perfect condition, but did it last the test of time?

Interact with other users: Now, that doesn’t mean flat out buying stuff – that kind of defeats the purpose. But be sure to ‘like’ other peoples posts and follow Irish users. That way you’ll connect with more people.

TheJournal.ie is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports
the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the
press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may
have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the
Press Ombudsman Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or go to
www.pressombudsman.ie
or www.presscouncil.ie

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.